Daily Number

50

April 2, 2012

New Jerseyans rank dead last in the country for the use of generic drugs for payable prescriptions, according to a recently released CVS Caremark study on how well citizens adhere to drug prescriptions for chronic illnesses. The study showed that only 58 percent of drug prescriptions in the Garden State were filled by generics, and diabetes and hypertension drugs were particularly unlikely to have generics dispensed for treatment.

Overall, New Jersey ranked in the last third of states when it came to medication adherence. It’s highest ranking (16) was for medication possession ratio, meaning the ratio of the total days the member had a drug available to the number of possible days the participant could have the drug on hand. The study also looked at percent of payable prescriptions that were dispensed by mail (NJ ranked 41); and whether prescriptions were refilled (NJ ranked 43).